Flight Charts

There are a number of different charts available, we will look here at the most common & useful ones for X-Plane pilots. The highlighted prices indicate the maps cost from Transair at Fairoaks Airport in UK currency. Open the pictures in a sepearte window to see them in more detail.

IFR Enroute Charts

These charts show flight routes between different nav aids. There are 3 which cover Europe, Jeppesen, Aerad & TPC/ONC. You can also get them for other parts of the world. I have seen ones for parts of Africa & India in the Transair shop. You can see from the picture from Andrew Ayers lessons (I will put my own ones up when I get hold of a scanner) some of the key points on an (Jeppesen) IFR chart such as the Vero Beach VOR (centre) and the lines radiating from it. Look at Andrews lessons to find out what it all means.
£5.95

ICAO (VFR) Charts

These show nav aids, airfields and restricted areas as well as VFR information such as roads, towns and obstacles. These charts are primarily intended as wall charts for flight planning but can be folded for carrying onboard aircraft. They come in a variety of sizes such as 1:500,000 which covers the UK in 3 maps (this size is also used for the other European maps), or 1:250,000 which only covers the UK. The old set of 18 UK charts is being replaced by the CAA with larger maps (but at the same scale) which cover the UK in only 8 charts. The new series should be complete by the middle of '98, though some available now. Jeppesen also offer similar 1:500,000 charts of Europe but slightly cheaper at £9.85.
£12.50 (UK charts)

London Helicopter Route Chart

This is a 1:50,000 scale chart purely for helicopter pilots in the London area. It is similar to the ICAO charts above with all the same symbols and depictions of nav aids and airfields.
£9

VFR Flight Guides

A flight guide gives detailed information about specific airfields such as obstacles, runway lengthes and areas to avoid such as quiet villages who do not want to hear the drone of engines overhead. There are a number of differnt versions available. Jeppesen produce a flight guide which contains colour ordanance survey style maps of 250 airfields with flight information for £32.95. Pooleys produce a guide in looseleaf (£29.50) or book (£19.50) form. It has information & charts on over 350 airfields & 188 helipads, this is what my flight instructor recommended. There is a guide purely for helicopter pilots which gives details and maps on 480 landing sites at hotels, pub car parks and other sites across the UK for £21.95. Jeppesen also produce a whole European range of VFR Airfiels manuals which you can buy in sets such as France & Iberia, Scandanavia or the whole of Europe. The UK costs £55, the entire collection costs £239.95 ! You can buy country trip kits for around £30 though. There is a set of US flight guides which give information on all the US airfields in a 3 binder set costing £29.50 each.

IFR Approach Plates

Jeppesen sells approach plates for the UK (£125) or Europe & North Africa for £1,039. An approach plate gives IFR landing instructions. If you look at the diagram for a landing at Vero Beach you can see the route & altitude you have to fly at to land at Vero Beach. Again Andrews lessons cover their use and are great fun for sim pilots. Crank the visibility down to a couple of miles and bring the cloud base down to 400 feet and follow the lesson. You will soon see how important these plates are for flying in poor visibility. You can see some approach plates created in a PC program for sim pilots here
£29.50 each

X-Plane Pilots Chart list

I would suggest a UK X-Plane pilot get the IFR Enroute charts and a ICAO wall chart to learn where all the nav aids and flight routes are. Plus a wall map looks quite cool & shows you are serious about your virtual flying. If you have a little money get the Pooleys flight guide to learn more about the airfields you fly from/to. Although X-Plane does not show things like towns and roads at present, using the flight guide you can imagine where they are. This whole package should cost around £37.95. Those of you who are richer than the rest of us (or who are real pilots) could buy the Jeppesen approach plates. Rememeber these are real charts, used by real pilots for real flying. X-Plane is accurate enough to use real charts for your virtual flying, which makes you feel like you are really flying.